ARD 13
by Those-Who Walk-Alone
Summary: The commander of an alien race faces her most difficult task: she has to deal with a certain copper-haired female, and the repercussions that follow.
1. Chapter 1

_This story and it's core ideas were passed to me with permission by its original creator, 0841 Unyielding Temperance, for re-writing and continuation of his storyline. (His original story is thus far still visible on his profile) Thanks to him for such a fantastic universe for me to play with, and I hope you guys enjoy this AU just as much as the both of us do. I can only hope I do justice to the fantastic scale and potential this story has._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

_Frossiya_

_Cycle 5, Arc of Restoration_

_Citadel of Souls_

Before her stood a monument of sorrow.

She came here often, to restore her divine connection, to strengthen it, to understand the heritage of herself, the Council, and the people around her. It was a practice she continued, half in part due to her innate connection with the Ice, half in part to keep herself sane.

Today however, was more ceremonial in nature. The icy chamber, built into the side of a solitary mountain, stood tall and alone in the snowy Tsarvich Plains, a symbol of endurance and perseverance, to have stood for so long in the harshest place on the planet. She'd come here with only the Leader and the Intelligence, the only two permitted to witness this act of divination, and had been that way for a very long time. Her hands outstretched and her eyes narrowed, the chamber doors gleamed with the Insignia of Command, then slid open in perfect halves, allowing the dim light of the star Frossiya orbited to slowly illuminate the pathway before them, a long and dark corridor leading to the darkness beyond.

"Shall we?" The Leader intoned, outstretching his hand to allow the Commander passage. Her response was a nod, and she entered, her companions close behind. They made an odd trio; the Leader was clad in clunky battle armor, the Intelligence in ceremonial robes, but the Commander adorned a dress that exposed the top of her shoulders, the icy fabric covering the rest of her body, save a slit on the lower regions to allow movement, another layer of transparent fabric trailing behind her.

With more scraping against the frozen rock beneath its foundations the doors slid shut, the light quickly fading away. Abruptly the Commander reached out with her right hand and struck the side of the corridor. A blue spark ignited, rushing across and in front of them, lighting up the passageway, and then the spherical cavity within the mountain lit up with a bluish hue. The individual chambers of each and every incarnation glowed magnificently, and ice rushed to meet them, creaking as they joined to form a pathway from the passageway into the very center of the cavity, suspended in thin air.

It ended where the divine Ice floated. Crystalline in structure, column in shape, yet an enigmatic aura radiated from the core of the gargantuan chamber.

Almost tentatively the Commander forced herself to continue her walk towards the Ice. Already she could feel the pulsing of its mind, the small cluster of voices whispering to her around the insides of her head. She felt the minds of the Leader and Intelligence stiffen similarly from the contact, but they kept walking. The suspended pathway elongated, allowing all three of them to step before the Ice, and the pulses grew in intensity.

_You are here._

The Commander merely nodded in response; there was no need for further communication, and doing so was an unnecessary taxation on her energy. _You know why you are here._ She nodded again.

A single, solitary icicle shot forth towards her, angled directly towards her nosebridge between her eyes. She did not flinch. As required. She'd passed the test, and worthy of the mantleship of Commander.

_The Arc has just begun. You are now its harbinger, _Elsa. _See that the Arc flourishes._

Elsa took the icicle between her two palms, her power coursing through her veins. With a swift movement, she broke the icicle, and the stump retracted back into the ball of ice before her. The rod of ice creaked and crackled, morphing from a single icicle into a grand, twin-edged blade, the hilt made of the finest Dellium, the blade made of the purest ice. A matching sheath covered the sharp blade, inscribed with the sole runes that mattered as a Commander: _Conceal, don't feel._

_Icewrath is yours to wield, and yours only. Go forth, and let all be peace and prosperity._

Elsa bowed her head, attaching the sword to her belt, the Ice briefly flashing with the Insignia of Command once more, then disappearing back into the blue. The light dimmed, and the trio left the chamber, having been allowed one more glimpse into the mysteries of Frossiya.

The deity retreated back into its column of ice, watching silently as the chamber descended once more into darkness. _Elsa._ This was going to be tough; this new Commander strangely possessed a connection to it much greater than any other being, even the Commander before her. It had been a risky move to allow the divination to take place, but the one thing that the deity possessed that nothing else did on that planet was faith. Faith in its people.

So for once, the deity let the matter rest. And once more it called out its eternal name, the name it shared with the planet it resided in, the name its people feared and revered.

_Frossiya._

The shuttle was parked upon the open plains. The ice beneath yawned and creaked; it was said that most of Frossiya's power came directly beneath those plains. For them to tread upon such divine ground was a privilege given to few.

But the privilege of Commander was also a curse.

Elsa let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding as she mounted the ramp to the shuttle's hold, her companions following behind her in stoic silence. They hadn't spoken since they had entered, and for them, starting a conversation often turned out rather awkward.

Luckily for them, they were bestowed upon them a conversation starter.

"There's a transmission," the Intelligence noted.

Elsa frowned as she briskly walked over to the console. She placed a palm upon its cool surface, the holographic display emitting a gentle hum as the transmission engaged playback.

"Commander." The Warrior's figure appeared before her, her red hair trailing messily behind her. "At around 5 millicycles after your departure we detected an unknown signature entering range of the Ringfleet sensors. It appears there has been an incursion into Frossiyan space."

The display warped and changed, the images reforming before them. Elsa sensed her companions shifting uneasily behind her, equally unnerved by this turn of events as the Warrior continued. "Preliminary analysis indicates that this ship is for resource gathering; most of the space on the ship is meant for storage. The equipment is premised upon some form of forceful penetration method that will be harnessed upon the surface it wishes to break. As of this transmission, the Ringfleets are currently moving into defensive formation, and will continue to remain undetected. I am compelled by protocol to state that should your return and that of the Leader's and Intelligence's not occur within the next 10 millicycles, the Strategist will assume command temporarily, and coordinate an effective response until you arrive."

The transmission shut off abruptly, leaving the three figures standing in the hull of the shuttle. _10 millicycles. There's only 4 remaining… And I know how thick-headed Hans can be…_

"Get this ship in the air," Elsa ordered. The Intelligence moved to comply, sitting down at the console and starting the engines with a familiar whine. The Leader strapped himself into a passenger seat, and Elsa sat back into the Watcher's chair, feeling the ship vibrate with power as it levitated off the ground. "Set course to Ringfleet Glaciar immediately, and double it up. I will not have the Strategist carry out an action that we will all regret."

The engine's whining turned into roaring as the propulsion kicked the ship into high velocity, the Intelligence pulling the ship into a steep climb to escape the planet's atmosphere. She felt her own heart rate quicken, but she forced herself to cool down. It was never good to be hasty and irrational; those were the two banes of her existence as Commander. Right now she needed to focus and execute.

And be damned anyone who stood in her way.

* * *

><p>"Alien ship continuing on current trajectory, no sign of course correction," the officer reported.<p>

Hans sat back the in the Watcher's chair, surveying the situation. Upon the various projections he planned his next course of action. It wasn't sufficient for him to just let them enter a gyro synchronous orbit around the planet and just to monitor them from there; he'd blast them to smithereens. If anything such a decision was beneficial to his goals anyways; it showed his strength and steely determination in command.

And technically, he needed to show that, if he was going to get anywhere closer to the Commander.

"Prep the Ringfleets for offensive maneuvers. Ready Arms 1 through 3, prepare to immobilize and cripple. Additionally, ready all available cannons, and target that ship."

"Lock on acquired," another officer called out. "Still tracking descent."

"Prepare to fire." His eyes narrowed as the ship closed in on the effective range of the ice cannons, calmly waiting for his chance to strike. For Frossiya, it was a strike against invaders, or at least, that would be how it appeared to them. For him, it was a leap up the ladder of hierarchy, and hopefully put him in favour with the Commander.

"Ship has entered effective firing range."

His chance had come. "Open fire!"

Elsa rushed upon the bridge, her eyes narrowing the moment she heard the words "Open fire!"

"Belay that!" she yelled in response, her eyes focusing on how close the weapons officer's finger had been to the trigger. She stormed upon the bridge, eyes glowering at the Strategist, who sat motionless in his chair, albeit a small quiver every now and then.

"What in the name of Frossiya do you think you are doing?" she spat out.

"I'm defending our people," came the retort.

"By firing upon an unknown ship with no prior investigation?"

"At this point, it is logical to assume that they have hostile intentions."

"Until I can carry out a proper investigation, you will not utter another order on this bridge," Elsa managed to say without letting her voice get out of control.

"But Elsa—"

That did it. Elsa drew Icewrath, the icy blade scraping against the scabbard, its gleaming edge pointed directly at Hans' neck. "Vacate the seat immediately, Strategist. Do not forget your place here; you are to advise and to plan, not to order without MY jurisdiction. Vacate the seat, AND the bridge, and do not return until you are called for, else I will not hesitate to be off with your head."

She watched her words take on the intended effect. Hans sulked, angrily pushing himself off the Watcher seat and briskly vacating the bridge.

"He does have a point, you know," the Leader intoned after the last of Hans' silhouette vanished from the bridge. "It is safer to assume they are hostile."

"That may be, but our way of meeting the threat is not to obliterate everything we see." She didn't even grace the Leader with a decently sounding reply, simply moving over to the console to disarm the weapons. "He forgets his place; this is the Arc of Restoration for a reason. We are here to heal, not tear open old wounds."

"As commanded."

"What's their ETA?"

"3 days."

"Origin?"

"Working on it, Commander," the Librarian responded.

"Intelligence, speed up our systems, but maintain cloaking protocols."

"As commanded." The bridge erupted into a flurry of activity that Elsa oversaw, her eyes turning into dangerously narrow slits.

"Got it. They hail from the second quadrant of our galaxy, from a relatively young system." The primary display aboard Ringfleet Flagship Glaciar warped into a blue display of the Milky Way, marking out the lightyears travelled on the vessel's previous trajectory, then zooming into the second quadrant of the galaxy, the arm of the stars that orbited the black hole at the center. The system's star was identified, the information slowly loading on the display. A flash of memory sliced through Elsa's brain, and she grimaced, the Ice's memories flowing through her neurons. "Commander?" she heard through ringing ears, the voices reverberating off the insides of her head. "Commander? Are you alright?"

"I've… been there… before," she managed the say, forcing herself into an upright position amidst the stinging whiplash. The display had loaded; Sol, the star that gave life to its system, with its only significant, and habitable planet in that sector.

The Explorer squinted his eyes. "As have I, Commander. That is Earth, the place that they herald from."

"Detailed analysis coming online, Commander," the Librarian said as she consulted her tablets, frowning as she did so. "How… curious. These creatures require oxygen…"

She crinkled her nose as she uttered the next phrase. "…and water."

Murmurs echoed from around the bridge. Elsa could feel the pulses of distaste tugging at each and every member of the bridge's minds. _Blasphemy. Sacrilege._ To consume water was to take apart the very essence as to which Frossiya comprised, to use it for one's own needs. To do so was the greatest of heresies, to do so was to degrade their deity for their personal consumption. To alter something as pure and clear as ice, was unthinkable. Then mentally, they apologized, directing their remorse towards the great Frossiya, banishing the thoughts from their minds. An acceptable show of regret.

"But why would they come here?" the Leader asked. "They cannot possibly require oxygen and water; our atmosphere contains no such gas, their apparatus does seem fit for such collection, and they would not attempt to traverse such a great distance simply for such materials."

"Do they have databanks that we can hack?" Elsa inquired.

"They do. Retrieving information now," the Intelligence replied. The display morphed again, line after line of alien coding scrolling past their vision. "They seek, materials from Frossiya."

"Materials?" Elsa drew upon the data download and brought it up to her own console, scrolling through the information herself. _But what materials could they possibly need? Our civilization flourishes on a meagre supply of resources, very little of which we consider valuable…_ Her train of thoughts paused momentarily as she halted at a section that seemed to answer her question: a list of precious metals and rocks, along with some form of scientific analysis. She opened the datafiles, scanning through their contents, frowning at the images that came to her eyes. Wordlessly she brought up the images on the main display.

"Dellium," she uttered. "That's what they want."

More murmuring. "They also seek many other metals and rocks that lie within the layers of our planet." Elsa put up more files on the main display as the downloads continued pouring in. "These other metals we have no use for, yet they believe that they could find a use for them. Large deposits of these resources exist all across our planet, of which number so many I will not bother listing. Their preliminary reports indicate this place to be some sort of 'gold mine', in their terms. They wish to forcefully penetrate our planet and extract the materials they desire directly." The murmuring that was occurring before had now turned into an uproar; Elsa noted the lack of restraint this time.

"Is there a name for this repulsive species?" the Leader spat out, crossing his arms as he moved over towards Elsa. "Why not just destroy them once and for all, as Hans suggested?"

Elsa frowned with contempt as she turned towards the Leader. "I could do that, if you insist that to be. If you are indeed willing to become the catalyst for the Second War of the Fourth Quadrant and render the efforts of the Fifth Cycle's Arc of Restoration useless, then I could indeed do so." She paused, letting her words sink in. "Otherwise, you will wait." For a while she looked down at her feet, allowing herself to calm down, before she spoke once more.

"Humans," she said. "That is what they are."

She turned back to her console, and rose to take her leave. "Reposition all Ringfleets back to defensive formation, and then trigger immobilization protocols. Make sure it hits."

"As commanded," the bridge echoed, just before Elsa left the bridge.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_UNIF Living Rock_

_0100 Earth hours_

_Deep space, Milky Way_

Anna sat upon the viewing deck of the mining vessel as the ship cruised through deep space, watching the stars pass them by ever so slowly. She leaned back against the cushioned seats; a welcome respite from the past few hours of equipment maintenance and safety drills. Their schedule for recovery had just concluded; the inter-stellar trip had mostly been spent in cryo chambers, and their wake up protocols detailed a re-internalization of important safety procedures, and the operation of important machinery. After all, it was a mining mission, not a leisure tour.

But aside from the occasional boredom that bogged her down with her daily duties, Anna was happy. She lived for this; the exploration to the stars beyond the Solar System, to see the stars beyond. They passed by many great and beautiful planets, but all deemed to be uninhabitable for life forms. Regardless, Anna savoured each and every moment of their journey, inscribing the scenes she saw into the back of her mind.

Then came along their destination. And Anna had been mesmerized from the images she had seen from the long range scanners. The planet glowed a magnificent icy blue, its mountain ranges and great plains making it a sight to behold for the entire galaxy. Her trip hadn't been wasted after all.

But along her trip, there was one specific thing that she sought out, but hadn't found yet. Alien life.

"No way," Kristoff had told her on multiple occasions. "Earth is the only planet that can support life without terraforming."

"That's a baseless assumption," the redhead retorted. "There's so many planets out there that we haven't discovered. How can there not be anything out there?"

That usually shut him up. Anna thought she made quite a lot of sense. Space travel had only been around for 50 years for humanity, and they hadn't covered a lot of ground, or rather, space. So far warp travel had only taken them so far as a small part of the Milky Way. Bogged by the problems of course planning and black hole emergency protocols, humanity hadn't been very bold quite yet, so they hadn't explored much. Assuming there was no more life out there simply didn't work.

The planet was designated ARD 13, orbiting a white dwarf designated Arendelle ARD 00. And that had gotten Anna's hopes up again. Kristoff, ever the skeptic, was still around to shoot down her ideas. "Look at that place! It's fucking freezing all over. It's going to be really hard for anything to survive down there."

"They can adapt to the cold."

"Look Anna," Kristoff said, exasperated, "why are you even so obsessed over finding alien life? We're here on a mining mission, not an exploratory outreach ship. Our ships travel to uninhabitable planets to search out for minerals, not alien life."

"But there's got to be someone out there?" she responded, finding herself growing ever more euphoric over the topic.

"Even if there was, it won't be on ARD 13."

"And how would you know that?"

* * *

><p>She reported back to the maintenance section after a few hours for her shift. It wasn't very intensive, or at least, it wasn't yet. There wasn't much you could mine until you got to an actual planetary site, save for the occasional mineral packed asteroid.<p>

Anna donned a helmet, strapping the hard hat to her head, tucking her head back into a braid. She'd cut her hair when she got to the planet, else it might become a safety hazard for her. She'd had the unfortunate experience of getting her hair caught in some machinery before, and she'd escaped by the skin of her teeth when someone shut it off in time. Strangely enough, she hadn't quit.

_There's got to be things out there,_ she thought to herself.

Not everyone shared her opinion. There'd been a few other miners besides Kristoff who'd vehemently disagreed with what she said, and she'd heard talk around the other personnel on board about how they'd like to meet the aliens in glorious combat. To the point, where she heard confident boasting that no matter what happened humanity could take on the aliens anyway. A foolish thought, in her mind; she knew it'd been that thought that had doomed many nations and groups throughout humanity's history, and such thoughts would only serve to do the same, even now. It was hard for her to find people who shared her beliefs.

She walked over to Drill-1, the craft she had been designated to maintain and repair, also dubbed by the troops the Omega drill. It was a deployable, pilotable craft of its own, capable of space flight and traversing land, sea and air, but could also attach to the front of _Living Rock_ if busting through heavy rock was required. Anna detested it. The very idea of using it for destructive purposes disgusted her, and the last thing she wanted was to use it against any living things.

"Anna?"

She turned. "Rapunzel!" A smile lit up on her face as she embraced her co-worker. She hadn't seen Rapunzel for the entire of the trip; heck, she didn't even know she was here.

"How's your trip been so far?" Rapunzel asked.

"Fine, I guess. The view's been gorgeous."

"I know right? Pity there aren't others around to savour it with us." Anna smiled again. Rapunzel had been one of the only few who had shared her interest in discovering alien life in the stars beyond.

"Do you think we'll find anything down there?" Anna asked.

"Unfortunately, I think this is the wrong planet. Conditions are way too harsh down there." They moved over to the drill, mounting the scaffold to continue maintenance works. "Way too cold, and they probably have no rivers to drink from either."

"Yeah," Anna replied, letting out a sigh. "That's what Kristoff's been telling me too."

"Kristoff?" Rapunzel laughed as she passed Anna a pack of high-precision tools before pressing her hands onto the next platform, grunting as she pushed herself up to get to higher maintenance areas. "You still sticking with that guy?"

Anna grabbed on to Rapunzel's hand and pulled herself up. "He's like a brother to me; frankly, given what he's done for me, I honestly owe him a lot."

"But never considered going anywhere beyond that?" Rapunzel teased as she opened the circuit box for them to inspect.

"Nah. Not into him."

"Will you ever be into anyone?"

It was Anna's turn to laugh. "I've got no clue, Rapunzel. But I'll think about it."

* * *

><p>About 3 hours later there was an announcement for all personnel to report to the mess hall for a briefing regarding mining operations. Their ETA was now two days, and Anna wasn't quite sure about how she felt. It was a mixture of euphoria, anticipation and dread, and quite honestly, she had no idea what to expect. Wordlessly the personnel moved down the corridors into the mess hall and took their seats, some opting to stand aside at the edges of the room for extra space. Anna met up with Kristoff and Rapunzel, and opted for that option instead.<p>

A short, stout old man, glasses mounted on his face walked up to the podium, his mustache quivering as he did so in the most strange of ways. He smoothed out his silver hair and glared down at the audience, waiting for silence before he continued on. Then he reached out and tapped the screen on his console. The much larger screen next to the podium lit up, the display first going into static, before finally beginning to load.

"Fellow ladies and gentlemen," he began, "This, is ARD 13." The display finished its image rendering, displaying the external view of one of the ship's exterior mounted cameras, focused in on the planet. Anna, previously struggling not to fall asleep from another boring lecture, looked up with excitement as a chorus of _oohs _and _aahs_ filled the mess hall. The uniformly smooth sphere of ice emitted its signature blue glow in the feeble luminescence of the white dwarf that it orbited. Surrounding it were several rings of the same lucent material, resulting in a flowing water effect. Silhouetted against the blackness beyond, ARD 13 was probably the most beautiful thing Anna had ever seen, surpassing the other planets that they had passed by.

"Yes, yes, it's all pretty and whatnot," Officer Weselton went on, visibly annoyed by the public show of awe for the planet. "But my friends, that is not why we are here today. Rather, _this_, is why we are here." He hit the screen on his console, and the planet surface transformed into an image of its layers already scanned, blotches of land here and there coloured in various gradients, charts and statistics also popping up on the screen. "Beneath that boring icy exterior is where all the nice stuff is. All the metal, rocks and gems that we can possibly mine, and then we will sell them for millions!"

That got a cheer to erupt form the crowd, the once silent mass bursting into conversation upon that announcement, but it only got a groan from Anna. Surely she couldn't be the only one who could see thorugh Weselton's lies, and that he wasn't going to give much to the rest of them? Anna caught the faraway gleam in his eyes, most certainly fantasizing about the pool of money he would end up swimming in after completing the necessary transactions. She scoffed and crossed her arms as her colleagues sycophantically praised Weselton and asked him stupid questions to boost his ego. _I have lost all faith in humanity. What have we become? Selfish animals that crave material desires?_

"Something's not right," she heard Kristoff say.

"What's wrong now?" Anna replied idly, her eyes slowly turning back to the display.

"I swear it's something about those rings that don't seem natural to me…" Kristoff trailed off, leaving Anna to ponder the thought.

He was right. She squinted to get a better view, watching as the rings as their flowing movement appeared to pick up speed. "That isn't right at all…"

"Wait," Kristoff said, noticing the change too. "Wait, wait, everybody SHUT UP!"

The whole room fell silent, as all heads turned towards the blonde haired man. Weselton looked especially enraged. "And who the hell do you think you are—"

"Look!" Anna interrupted, pointing at the screen. The 'rings' broke formation, splitting into various segments, smaller parts of the former icy rings now rotating to almost directly face their ship, their bodies pulsating a bright blue. Then before anyone could say anything further a soundless blue wave sprung from their bodies and leapt outwards, straight towards them.

"That doesn't look good," Kristoff said. "Everybody brace—"

Too late. The wave hit them head on, and the hull screeched and shuddered, a huge shockwave knocking everyone standing off their feet. Anna felt herself crash into the ground, her head knocking heavily against the metal floor, sending a wave of dizziness through her brain. Still giddy from the impact, she groaned amidst the panicked chatter around them, pushing herself upright the moment the shuddering stopped.

But everything was pitch black.

_Am I blind? Did I knock my head so hard that I went blind?_ A fresh wave of panic hit her, just before the dim lights came back on, flickering in places and dimmer in others. She also didn't feel any momentum; she would have when the ship was normally moving, so Anna could only assume that they had somehow stopped by the sheer force of the wave.

"You okay?" she heard Kristoff ask, he himself struggling to his feet, extending a hand to pull her up. She accepted the help. "What the hell was that?" he went on.

"Bridge?" Weselton's shrill voice cut through the air, directed towards an intercom unit. "What in the name of space shit just happened?"

"We just got hit by some kind of pulse, captain. Whatever it was, our ship is currently immobilized."

"Immobilised?" Weselton asked, the pitch in his voice rising steadily. "What the hell do you mean by immobilized?"

"All engines and thrusters are not functioning sir. We have zero propulsion potential. Heck, the fucking thrusters won't even move, and a lot of other things aren't working other. We suspect there might be an additional hydraulics issue as well."

"Maintenance!" Anna groaned involuntarily upon hearing the call, but slapped her hand over her mouth quickly to muffle the sound when she caught Weselton turning to her direction, a grim look on his face. "Get down to storage and check our mining equipment, and some of you better get down to engineering too. If any of them are damaged beyond repair we can call this entire operation off, and that better not be fucking happening today."

* * *

><p>Anna and Rapunzel dashed back down towards the Omega Drill. "I swear to God," Rapunzel complained, "If anything's happened to the fucking circuits I will personally rip them out. We spent so much fucking time on them."<p>

"Tell me about it," Anna replied with a sigh, whipping out her high precision instruments as they mounted the scaffold again, watching as Rapunzel practically ripped off the cover for the circuits.

"Funny," she noted. "Everything seems okay."

"The hell?" Anna half-pushed Rapunzel aside to take a closer look. She'd been right, everything didn't seem to be damaged. That didn't add up. "If the circuits are fried, what the hell is going on with our electricity?"

"I'm calling in Diagnostics," Rapunzel said, drawing out her datapad and keying in a few protocol bypasses. "Diagnostics, this is Maintenance Crew Alfa for Drill-1, permission to start up the drill and run a few tests as troubleshooting."

"Permission granted, Drill-1 Alfa. We're getting similar requests from almost every other piece of equipment on this ship."

Anna frowned. "What the hell was that?" she asked when Rapunzel terminated the communication, receiving only a shrug in response. Anna shook off her doubts, mounting the ladder to the cockpit. She'd been trained to operate the drill, so she knew the basic tests to run. She waited for Rapunzel to clear the vicinity of the rather intimidating and lethally huge drill bit, then hit the startup protocols.

Nothing.

"The fuck?" she said to herself as she shut it down and climbed out of the cockpit. "It won't turn on," she reported to Rapunzel. "The engines won't start either!"

"Did we fuel the damn thing?"

"Didn't we?" Anna responded as she descended the scaffold. "I seem to recall filling it up before shipping into cryo."

"Only one way to find out."

Anna moved over to the fuel hatches, where they normally pumped fuel into the monstrosity of a drill. The fuel gauge read full. Perplexed and frustrated, Anna yanked off the emergency hatch in anger, only remembering that was bound to release all the fuel at once. She recoiled as a reaction, bracing for the inevitable smell and soaking of fuel.

It didn't come. She looked again.

The fuel was solid.

"What the fuck?" she heard an incredulous Rapunzel behind her. Equally confused, she reached out to touch the surface. The fuel was cold. Then she understood. "Diagnostics?" she radioed. "This is Drill-1 Alfa. Fuel on Omega Drill is frozen solid, requires a dethaw."

"Roger that, Alfa-1—"

"Incidentally, go and check if the other crews are experiencing the same problems. That might be our main problem here."

There was silence on the other end, then the connection terminated. About 5 minutes later Diagnostics accidentally broadcasted their conversation with Officer Weselton on an open channel. "Sir, it appears all hydraulic fluid and fuel has been frozen solid. Until we can properly dethaw it, we are dead in the water."

The personnel had a rather fun time laughing at the stream of vulgarities that flowed forth from Weselton's filthy mouth. Then Officer Weselton regained his composure, switched to broadcast channel, and made an announcement.

"Well then, ladies and gentlemen, our hydraulics and fuel appear to be frozen." There was a pause, and a nervous cough. "Due to the... _unstable_ nature of the planet, I suggest take any other action until we have confirmed that it is benign. Would anyone like to be part of a say... reconnaissance patrol to scout out the area, and ensure the safety of your fellows?"

Anna's excited eyes met Rapunzel's. She couldn't help it; all her life, she'd been cooped up in her house, with her parents trying to train her to become the perfect woman to take over the family chain of hotels and such. When she'd signed up to become part of the UNIF Mining Crews, they'd been furious. Might as well make sure her time off world was worth it right? Maybe Kristoff was wrong, and there were really aliens out there, who lived on that ball of ice? How would she ever find out, unless she went to see for herself?

She knew what she had to do.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_Geosynchronous orbit around Frossiya_

_Cycle 5, Arc of Restoration_

_Ringfleet Flagship Glaciar_

The immobilization protocols had worked. They always did, and there hadn't been any technology that could withstand those pulses yet.

Elsa surveyed her handiwork. The Ringfleets had completed their defensive formation, and each of the eight Ringfleets was now poised to counter threats from any direction, though some thought it was purely overkill on their part. The surge of extra power she had personally channeled into that freezing wave ensured an extra level of insurance; the ship wasn't going anywhere for the next few centi-cycles. And if they decided to, they'd find at least five thousand ships, each about the size of a small asteroid, awaiting their very move.

But her work was far from over. Right now she had to discipline Hans for his breach in protocol, and get the rest of everything back in order. It wasn't every now and then that you start of an Arc of Restoration with a potential conflict brewing in its wake, the first use of the very mantle of command that she just attained was to threaten one of her fellow officers into submission. Frossiya had previously indicated that the 5th cycle was not to be one of peace, but nothing had been said about it getting off to this bad a start.

She detoured from her original destination, and took a trip down the Glaciar's Chamber of Remembrance. The Glaciar was the only Ringfleet ship to possess such a deep connection with the Ice, as was she with her own innate connection. She felt helpless with her current state; a little help would have been immensely helpful.

Alas, the response she received when she stepped inside and reached out to Frossiya was a little different from what she'd originally predicted. The Chamber would normally bestow upon her a great surge of strength, drawing on the energies of her predecessors eternally preserved within the spirit of Frossiya, infusing her with new resolve and purpose. This time however, her mind made contact with the Ice, and a sudden hostility towards the humans washed over her. _Curious,_ she thought to herself amid bated breath; Elsa had never felt this before, and wasn't sure how to proceed.

The only other time there had been any form of hostilities was in the previous Cycle, the sole reason for this Cycle's Arc of Restoration. Ravaged by a series of interstellar wars her people had fought and died in the defense of the deity that guarded them in various other means, but misguidedly rampaging through deep space with the heralding of the Arc of Reclamation. It was through those series of conquests and the resulting hostilities that the very name of _Elsa _had been translated to 'the Ruthless' in the languages of the aliens that had wiped off the face of the galaxy. Or at least, it was the previous one.

Their culture had a very odd way of naming: they were only given names after their death, so they names they held were rather temporary in nature. "Elsa" in its original form meant Commander, but it wasn't the name she would have. Elsa didn't know what she would be called after hers, and she wasn't quite sure if she ever wanted to know, but her previous incarnations all had rather curious names, including the most recent incarnation. Within the Chamber of Remembrance she reached out and felt the engraved runes on the walls of ice within the ship, stopping at the runes of her previous incarnation. _Idun._ "The Repentant."

Many brothers and sisters had perished in the War of the Fourth Cycle. Technically, "Elsa", or at least Idun, had been responsible. That all had ended, of course, after her death.

Another flash of memory sliced through her head, forcing to her knees, clenching her fists in pain. _Humans. They caused Idun's death._ The Ice allowed her a few more brief glimpses into the fate of her predecessor, then shut itself off from her grasp. Elsa recoiled from the pain, but reached out again. _Why do you hold these memories back, Frossiya? _

_"__These humans are not a friendly species," the Ice boomed in her head. "They must be stopped."_

_But I cannot just do away with them._

_"__It is our best course of action."_

_I will not start off another conflict by a vendetta caused by a previous incarnation of myself; the past in is in the past, and will not affect the future. Only my actions will, and I refuse to let events take that course. This power is not Idun's to control, but mine._

Frossiya shut off, this time by Elsa's control.

She exhaled deeply, free of the pain of anger and hatred, that she knew was partially on her end. Her bond with Frossiya was strong; too strong, in fact, to the point where it was unclear who held the element of control: Frossiya or her. The Ice moved to match her thoughts and emotions just as her actions moved to match that of the Ice's.

But Elsa was sure of one thing: that the emotions of Idun would not cloud her judgement today; she'd make the right decision. To consider xenocide on an alien race simply for who they were would make it no better than those who'd made her life a living hell when she was younger too. Humans were a young race, theirs old beyond millennia. Bullying was never nice, especially on a species wide-scale.

She gazed through a window on the ship, watching the stars beyond. She'd always enjoyed the feeling of being able to look up at the twinkling lights beyond; and Elsa wouldn't be the cause of anyone, human or her own people, to be unable to enjoy that with her.

When she entered the room Hans was already there. But of course; if he'd moved an inch elsewhere Elsa would consider some serious punishment against his clear display of insolence recalcitrance, but that opportunity was no longer there. A wave of uneasiness hit her as she felt Hans lay his eyes upon her. Sure, he had to look remorseful for his actions, and Elsa would give him credit as a decently good actor. But she could still see that unmistakable hunger in his green eyes, his tongue darting out almost imperceptibly to lick his lips.

_Hunger for me._

It was quite obvious that Hans knew the impact he had on most women. He was, as much as Elsa hated to admit it, quite the handsome one; his auburn red hair, emerald green eyes, dashing smile, pearly white teeth and well sculpted features would have made any other woman swoon immediately, but Hans was not interested in other women. Just as well, Elsa wasn't any other woman either. Conversely, she full knew the impact she had on men, and women, as well.

But she wasn't about to start using it as an exploit, an advantage, an extra edge, over other people. Elsa knew that just because she possessed a gift didn't mean she could use it for her own selfish purposes, and if Idun had taught her anything it was that. Idun's death to the humans was somewhat linked to her own selfish reasons, or at least that was what Frossiya was willing to reveal even after coaxing, and Elsa was not going to fall prey to that same fate. So she knew what she had to do with Hans, and luckily enough for her, she was pretty damn good at it.

Elsa smirked inwardly to herself as she drew up an ice chart from a tablet on the table, watching the hunger in Hans' eyes mix with frustration and denial as she averted the very topic he wished to discuss: the prospects of a long-term relationship. For Elsa, she knew it'd been out of the question the very moment she discovered the notion that had been sprung in Hans' mind. She'd taken it seriously nonetheless, even going on to speculate that it was part of the Ice's plan, but when she consulted Frossiya about the issue there had been no such arrangement.

_"__It is almost heresy for anyone else to ask about their future," she had been told._

_I understand, she had replied, but Hans is getting creepier by the cycle. _She'd been a teenager then, not quite yet of age, not quite mature and aware of the wider view of things. Her own emotions played the situation into her favour, and the Ice relented.

_"__You and he are not meant to be. You are to be with someone else; as to when that someone will ever arrive into your life and perception, I cannot disclose. This is all I can permit."_

Elsa had been grateful; heck, she'd been relieved.

The things they went through were rather generic, to the point where she was barely aware of what they talked about: Ringfleet deployments, incursion contingencies, citizen security, resource stockpiles… the list kept going, but neither of them barely kept track, for Hans wasn't interested in talk, but in Elsa herself. Elsa had merely promised Hans an audience, not herself either. So it turned out to be, in a weird sort of way, a productive waste of time.

When Elsa decided she was to retire from the talk altogether, she got up and prepared to leave, only to be stopped by Hans. "You do know that I meant no offense just now, right?"

_Oh look. Appeal to pity._ "Of course." _A pitiful answer to a pitiful argument does seem about right._

"Forgive me?"

She didn't even grace him with a look in the eyes; he could have way too many fantasies about her face, or so the Ice was willing to reveal to her without her knowledge, and she was disgusted. "There's nothing to forgive."

Then coldly, she walked out on him.

* * *

><p><em>UNIF Living Rock<em>

_0250 Earth hours – 2 days stranded_

_Proximity of ARD 13, deep space, Milky Way_

Anna watched as an engineer walked up to Weselton and reported, "Sir, we've channeled extra power into thawing the recon shuttles in the hangar. We're a bit low on remaining power, but we've planned our consumption to ensure that thawing of the main fuel tanks continues, and the recon shuttle should be usable now."

"Acceptable work." The old officer turned away with a smug look and faced the crowd of volunteers gathered at the cargo bay. "Start loading up! We've already wasted two days here doing nothing but thawing fuel. The sooner we scout out the planet and figure out what the hell is up with those rings, the sooner we can begin making some money!"

Anna's ears had already turned off after the words "start loading up". The old man had an unhealthy obsession with the realm of material benefits and cold hard cash; something told her it would be the death of him. She hefted the duffel bag over her shoulder, walking off with the rest of the volunteers towards the shuttles. The plan was to share a room with Rapunzel due to the limited space, and then the recon shuttle would explore the planet and the surrounding rings. It wouldn't take much longer than two or three days, and by then they'd have _Living Rock_ back up and running.

But she was excited. She could feel her feet bouncing beneath her as she mounted the gangplank onto Reconnaissance Shuttle _John Doe _and dumped her bag in her living quarters. For once, she felt liberated, less constrained by the metal walls of the ship, her soul now a weightless cloud. Her parents had trained her for other less bold prospects, but her decision to defy that and come here had paid off. She was going to explore an unknown world. _Beats sitting in an office and managing tons of hotels and whatnot…_

Kristoff hadn't been rather pleased when she signed up. "How do you know you'll even find anything there?"

"I don't know, but at least I'm going out there to see things!"

He only sighed and let her go off, with a few final chilling words. "Then if there are things out there, be careful."

_How bad could it be?_ Anna thought.

She decided to take one last walk around the hangar; the shuttle wasn't due to leave until a full hour later. Then she tripped. Again. Her mind wandered to how hopelessly careless she was as she braced herself for the inevitable pain of a crash on the metal floor. There was none. A pair of strong arms grabbed her just before her feet left the ground.

Looking up, Anna's eyebrows furrowed even as she smiled, in an awkward mix of confusion and thankfulness. "Hercules?" She stared at the huge soldier who stood before her. "What are you doing here?" Her eyes wandered to a small rack that he seemed to have shifted into the cargo bay. The teal orbs widened. Those were... "_Why_ the hell do we need those?"

"Don't worry, Ms Anna," Hercules smiled and responded. "It's just a rack of toys."

Anna stabbed a finger at the rack of firearms that was resting in a corner of the cargo bay. Carbines, submachine guns, a shotgun or two. "Those things are toys?" she asked incredulously.

The soldier looked at the rack of 'toys' and laughed. "Oh, well technically we're not supposed to bring any offensive devices. But _those_ are classified as personal defense. So Officer Weselton thought we should bring them along just in case we actually found something." Anna's nose wrinkled in distaste at the smug look on the soldier's face. _Barbarian_.

"Well, how do you know we'll even find anything?"

"Well, Miss Anna, you're certainly not quite the believer in alien life that your 'friend' made you out to be then."

The strawberry blonde whirled around to find that boring old officer standing behind her. His black irises watched her with vested interest as she struggled to craft her reply. "Th-that's not the point!" She spluttered. "Even if we do find something, why do we need to kill them? That can't be good for inter species relations!"

Weselton smiled, the sinister grin stretching from ear to ear. "Because, young lady, the UNIF exists to serve humanity's interests. If whatever we find happens to be in the way of our interests, then let's just say I'd rather take what we need rather than give and take."

Anna scowled at the old officer. "But you can't just _kill_ to get what you want!"

"Listen to me, Miss Anna," the old officer growled. "_What_ we find out there is in direct opposition to us claiming humanity's greatest resource of metals and water for the next century. They are against our survival as a species. Unless they can be proven to be something close to what we are, which even in that case I refuse to engage in diplomatic relations with, they will be classified as subhuman and treated as such, is that understood?"

"Crystal..." Anna snarled and looked at the ground.

"Good, now get out of the way. Your crewmates would very much like to load up."

Looking up, Anna realized that indeed, her crewmates were being held back because of their conversation. She gulped as she glimpsed a soldier who looked very likely to pick up the assault rifle in that crate below him and use it on her. She rushed out of the cargo bay, positive she could feel them glaring daggers into her back.

* * *

><p>Almost instantly, Anna slammed open the door to Kristoff's cabin and pounced on his bed immediately. With a cry of shock and surprise, Kristoff sat straight up in his bed, and sleep was jolted from his head by a loud crash on the floor. He looked over to find Anna staring up at him from below the bunk. Sheepishly, he offered a hand to her, pulling her up to the edge of the bed.<p>

"Kristoff..."

"What is it, Anna?"

"Why does everyone want to kill any aliens we find down there? What if they're actually really nice and friendly and furry?"

Anna heard Kristoff sigh and rub her hair as she buried her face into his shoulder. "Anna, whatever we find down there may not be friendly, or want to give us what we need-"

"You too?" Anna felt betrayed by Kristoff's attitude and she tore her head free from his grasp, staring straight into his eyes. "What makes you and everyone so sure that whatever we find down there has to be a _what_? Why couldn't it be a _who_? They must have lives too! Maybe they're just like us!"

"ANNA!" Kristoff lost his temper and grabbed her, shoving her face into the tiny porthole that showed ARD-13 outside, the glowing blue ball amongst the fields of stars. "Whatever survives down there lives in a room temperature of less than zero degrees, breathes carbon dioxide, and I don't know, _drinks_ liquid nitrogen! _What_ is down there is not human, Anna, and it is not, and will never be, like us! Now get out, and don't come crying to me when some reptilian monster devours your face!" The blonde flopped back into his bed, paying no heed to Anna who simply sat forlornly on its edge.

So she was alone in her belief. Anna looked at her best friend since young. Not even he was willing to believe that there was the possibility of friendly contact between humans and others. All humans knew how to do was manipulate, enslave, and take. Any animals left on Earth could testify to that. Was there no goodness left in this race? And if aliens were really that much like humans, did she really want to meet them?

Anna gazed silently out of a huge pane of glass between decks, admiring the beautiful rings that surrounded ARD-13 in the distance, the stars of the Milky Way twinkling all around it. When she was a child, wondering about the possibility of alien life, these questions had not been present in her mind. Neither had she been the only one enthusiastic about the possibilities of alien life. Now it was different. She was regarded as different, for being the one who would even entertain the notion of friendly alien life, even alien life's existence. Centuries of science-fiction movies had poisoned the minds of her peers, and so Anna found herself feeling lonely, even amongst her own species.

"I know you're out there somewhere," Anna whispered to the stars. "I know the friendly aliens that no one wants to believe in, are somewhere out there. And if you are there, I will find you, I swear it."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

_Geosynchronous orbit around Frossiya_

_Cycle 5, Arc of Restoration_

_Ringfleet Ultra Flagship Glaciar_

Space, as Elsa had discovered, was unlike the howling winds and gales that swept across the surface of Frossiya on a continual basis. It was silent.

Very, very silent.

She sat within the Chamber of Remembrance in deep meditation, allowing herself to reconnect with Frossiya. Like that of the Citadel of Souls, the chamber refined and strengthened that bond, and the more she meditated the better she could draw on that bond for strength. For her, the silence was a great help.

_Why do you risk your life? Why do you not destroy these humans?_

A twitch rippled through her eyebrows, then she brought it under control. _Conceal, don't feel. Conceal, don't feel._ The mantra she repeated from the runes of the sheath, the mantra she used to focus, to concentrate, to exact. _My life and needs are irrelevant in this time of need; not that I loved myself less, but my people more._

_Conceal, don't feel._

_Conceal, don't—_

"Commander."

She opened her eyes. When she had started meditating she'd been facing an empty doorway. Now she was facing the Leader.

"What is it?"

"The human ship has deployed a separate module; we're tracking a heat signature approaching the Ringfleets."

"Put us on alert status. I'll join you soon."

* * *

><p>The bridge was already abuzz with activity by the time Elsa stepped on the bridge. She frowned; they weren't supposed to be moving anytime soon. Evidently she'd underestimated the resourcefulness of the humans, and that was a mistake she wasn't going to make again.<p>

"What's their trajectory?" she asked, her hands moving to her own console to bring up a display of the situation. She needed details, and right now the main display on Ringfleet Glaciar was far too general and vague in its information.

"Separate module is still travelling towards Ringfleets _Retribution_ and _Aryan._ Preliminary analysis indicates vessel has basic weapon systems, but where it lacks firepower it makes up with mobility. Looks like they're scouting out our terrain and attempting to take a closer look at the Ringfleets," the Intelligence replied. "That would seem detrimental to allow the enemy to discover our capabilities."

Hans stepped upon the bridge. "I recommend we destroy them now," he proclaimed loudly, in that ever so obnoxious tone that forced Elsa to snort with distaste. "The fact that they have sent out a preliminary scouting party shows that they indeed harbor hostile intentions."

"How fallacious, Strategist," Elsa responded, her eyes narrowing into dangerously little slits, "To think that someone like you was to take upon such a mantle is beyond me, and only the Ice would understand." _Underhand move._ She could see the look of hurt on Hans' face, but it was sufficient to shut him up. It would do her no good to have a pest on her back that she had to deal with even in a time of potential crisis. "Order _Retribution _and _Aryan_ to have their ships assume concealment, and remain in orbit. The deception should suffice. Wait and see what they do."

"Understood." The Intelligence returned to his console.

"Commander, our current database on this species seem to possess a few far flung records, as you asked me to research for," the Librarian said upon her rather sudden entrance. Elsa turned to face her as she went on. "The Archives of Knowledge yield minimal results, for two hundred years of cyclic reconditioning has degraded our database and knowledge is lost to the relentless flow of time."

Elsa nodded. She knew their civilization had gone through the cycle of "Rebirth" after the most recent conflict, reconnecting them to the deity Frossiya. 200 hundred years of stasis meant to rehabilitate them had left records unkempt and unattended, so it was unsurprising to find some data lost to the frozen winds on their planet. She'd have to make do. "What did you find, then?"

"They appear to be a rather destructive species, and this corresponds with their apparent motives to…" the Librarian had to pause, "…to forcefully extract resources from the great Ice. This recent movement seems to be in line of their tactics of scouting. They prefer to be much more cautious than necessary at times, for their history is dogged with acts of overconfidence and carelessness."

_Impressive history, though I doubt as bloody as ours. _"Does anything we know give us an advantage over them?"

"Not really. We only know they have evolved into selfish creatures; they appear to have completely neglected the state of their homeworld."

"Can we exploit that?"

"Not that we can think of so far."

"Then we should take action now," said Hans, "and we shouldn't be hiding from them!"

"Are you suggesting we are taking an action of cowardice?" Elsa spat out. Ironically Hans decided to cower behind his chair once more. "I am tempted to remove you from this bridge, but we are in a time of crisis. We're only concealing the Ringfleets to decipher the humans' agenda, and discern their tactics. In due course, we will handle this threat."

She watched the display as the heat signature continued towards the icy rings of _Retribution _and _Aryan_, her eyes watching its every move as it continued onwards. Any slip in strategy could spell untold consequences for Frossiya. She resisted the urge to draw Icewrath.

The ship slowed down. "That's not good," the Leader said.

"We can't tell anything for now," Elsa replied. "Their next moves will decide our fate."

Agonizing moments passed as they watched the ship grind almost to a halt in front of the Ringfleets, undoubtedly scrutinizing its every detail. Nervous as she was Elsa held a degree of faith in the whole exercise; the Ringfleet design had been hers, and she'd ensured that when concealed, even up close each and every individual ship would look like an icy asteroid. And she used the assumption that no one was going to question why asteroids were made of ice. So far, no one had.

She felt her heart pound in her chest.

And then the ship moved off.

Elsa let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in for so long, the rest of the crew sharing her sentiments in the form of small cheers and minor applause. "Alright," she said, deciding to wrench back control into her hands. "Redirect Ringfleets _Guardian_ and _Vanguard_ the blockade the planet perimeter; I don't want that ship getting out until I decide to let them do so. Have _Triumph_ and _Unwavering _put on intercept alert and immobilize any additional targets."

"Ship is now entering the Frossiyan atmosphere, Commander," the Intelligence warned. "What should we do?

_I could follow what Hans wants, and get rid of the threat. Heck, why am I even bothering with this? I should just meet the threat head on—_

_Indeed. _

"Call the Eternal up to the loading bay. We will meet this threat."

"Commander?"

With a flourish of her arms and scully of her palms, Elsa's formerly ceremonial dress morphed into proper battle armor: her once exposed shoulders now covered in thick pauldrons, her limbs encased with shaped ice, her chest covered in plate after plate of ice. It looked oddly outdated, out of her time, but the design had served her well, and that of her previous incarnations. "I said, we will meet this threat. From there I will decide how else to proceed."

"Yes, Commander. Any further preparations?"

Elsa prepared to take her leave, only saying what was on her mind as an afterthought as she left her console. "Send Ringfleet _Harbinger_ out on patrol. If I don't come back, tell them to annihilate my last known location, and this scout shuttle that we are intercepting. I don't want to leave anything to chance."

* * *

><p>The Eternal were the elite guard. They had one duty, and one duty only to the people of Frossiya. Secure, contain and protect. It sounded very cheesy, and even like a rip off, but they served that purpose well enough for them to be counted on in times of need.<p>

Now though, Elsa couldn't be entirely sure of their efficiency; their last combat deployment had been over 200 years ago, and the cycles of rehabilitation tended to hinder the abilities of all who underwent the process. She'd have to make do then, so if she couldn't really trust the Eternal, which she highly doubted nonetheless, at least she'd be able to trust herself.

She attached Icewrath to the side of her waist, the extra weight becoming somewhat of a nuisance to her heavily armoured but mobile torso. Reforming the armoured helm of her predecessors before her upon her head, Elsa slipped the transparent visor down, her blue sapphire eyes still visible through the clear but solid sheet. The Eternal were already waiting for her in the bay, directly in front of the combat boarding vessel they were to commandeer, their bodies stock rigid and standing at attention. _Maybe I can count on them after all._

"Fellow warriors," she proclaimed to them. "Today we go forth to meet a potential threat to our people. We do not know them well, but regardless of our lives today we fight for the safety of our people."

Their response was a stamping of their weapons upon the floor, yelling out a battlecry of "hoo-ah!" in unison. Heavily armed to the teeth, some with lances in one hand and shields in the other, the rest wielding metal-infused ice rifles, and outfitted in the pinnacle of their civilization's armoured protection, Elsa couldn't help but smile inwardly. _So. I am misguided. I can count on them after all._

"Load up. We rise to meet this threat head on."

* * *

><p><em>UNIF Reconaissance Shuttle John Doe<em>

_0405 Earth hours_

_Trajectory towards ARD 13, deep space, Milky Way_

_John Doe _decelerated, its thrusters breaking the momentum it had built up over the past 15 minutes of travel from _Living Rock._ Their first stop: the asteroid rings themselves.

"Let's keep a safe distance," Officer Weselton said over the intercom. "I don't want anymore surprises from these stupid rings."

Sleepily Anna watched outside the porthole of her room, her eyes still struggling to take in as much of the beautiful sight as she could. The asteroids were made of pure ice, their alluring blue drawing Anna towards them. _Funny,_ she thought. _I almost feel like it's home out here._

The stop had been scheduled on a last minute basis by Weselton. He had determined that it was imperative to investigate the nature of the rings that had frozen their fuel, and he wanted to make sure it didn't happen again. Anna knew they were already analyzing the asteroid from the safety of their cockpit, using odd instruments which she believed wasn't going to help at all. _We're only going to get something out of this if we get out of this ship. Well, at the very least, we will be soon enough._ It would take them another 3 hours or so to descend into the planet's atmosphere and seek out a suitable landing spot. She lay back on the pillow, savouring the softness against the back of her head.

_They treat all of this like they're the clearly superior ones, and yet it is naïve to assume we are all that powerful…_ She wasn't going to start warning and lecturing them about humanity's courses of action, else she'd really get wrecked by Weselton and the rest of the crew, but also she was far too lazy; they were beyond saving now.

"Anything?" the voice came on the intercom again.

"Nothing that we can tell, sir. The asteroid looks just like ice. We can't ascertain the source of the pulse."

There was a pause. "Fine then. Continue towards the planet." She wasn't going to get any sleep this way.

"Having trouble sleeping?" Rapunzel said all of a sudden. Anna whipped her head around in surprise. "Neither can I."

"Want to take a walk?"

"Sure."

They stopped by at the bridge eventually. Anna got a raised eyebrow from Officer Weselton, but he said nothing more. All the better; she didn't want to hear it. He merely went back to his conversation with the onboard research team. "What is it?" he asked.

"Looks like normal ice."

"You sure?" His face was halfway to incredulous now. "These things froze all our fuel!"

"It doesn't appear to be from the rings. We can come back later and conduct a detailed analysis, but we're not equipped to do so with the equipment we currently have."

Anna heard Weselton growl in frustration. "…fine. Navigations, get us moving again and down to the planet's surface. ASAP."

Rapunzel was evidently lying about having trouble sleeping, or at least something along those lines was going on. She placed her head on Anna's shoulder the moment they sat down away from the conversation and fell sound asleep almost immediately after that.

Anna chuckled softly to herself, and let Rapunzel be. The stars seemed to drift ever so slowly by as the ship continued its descent, the chit-chat of the officials behind her droning past her eardrums. But her own mind raced away. They'd get down to the surface eventually, and for once she'd get a first, fresh outlook on what it was like on far flung planets. For once, Anna felt at peace with herself.

Then the alarm sounded.

"All personnel, attain immediate brace position. We have unknown object on collision course with our vessel. I repeat, BRACE, BRACE, BRACE—"

There was a loud "Bang!" and the shuddering of the hull, nearly throwing Anna off her seat, and thoroughly waking Rapunzel. "What the hell was that?" she yelled as she pushed herself to her feet. Dazed, Anna barely managed to shake off the whiplash and stand up, her vision still blurry from impact. Whatever had collided into them, had done so hard. Really hard. An alarm went off and the doors to the bridge hissed shut.

"We are off course, sir!" she heard an officer yell. "Engines aren't responding to controls; our circuits are fried somewhere. We are initiating emergency shutdown, but at this rate we aren't going to breach the atmosphere at the right angle. We risk burning up—"

"Yes, yes, I know," Weselton replied. "For god's sake, find out what the hell hit us—"

The metal doors that had been closed shut behind them suddenly rattled violently, a huge indentation suddenly visible from their side of the door. Anna felt Rapunzel grasp her hand tighter as they stood there as another indentation slammed into the door, before the twin metal panels flew off entirely.

Standing before them was a humanoid figure, seemingly female in appearance, wielding a single, icy broadsword. Behind her came four armoured figures, two wielding a lance and a shield each, the other two wielding an amalgamation of ice and silvery metal, forming the shape of a rifle. Even from her position Anna already felt colder than before, the sensation seemingly emanating from the foremost figure of the newcomers, who now raised the broadsword and pointed it at Weselton's neck.

"Greetings, humans." With a single phrase, frost swept over the metal surfaces of the bridge, overcoming the surfaces of the consoles and walls, misting over the windows. The members on the bridge visibly jumped, but the hand wielding the broadsword did not waver. Only the eyes behind the icy helm narrowed. "I see you have a particular interest in our planet."

A single brave bridge officer drew his sidearm, swiftly pulling off three shots at the apparent leader of the newcomers. With superhuman reflexes a shield was thrown around her bodice, and from behind there came a whine as one the aliens raised the rifle and opened fire. A blue beam shot past, slamming into the bridge officer, knocking him back into the console. As he doubled over in pain his mouth dropped open in agony and surprise as he raised his hands into view. A gasp emanated from the rest of the bridge as he exposed the wound above his heart, and his skin slowly but surely turned to pure ice. The assailant lowered the rifle, the muzzle emitting light condensation.

"A noble act," said their leader, as she finally lowered the broadsword. "Though the same cannot be said for the rest of you."

She wore form fitting armor plates that made her look beautiful and powerful at the same time. Anna glanced at her platinum blonde locks, tied into a braid that was wound around her head. She had high rosy cheekbones, perfect pink lips, and a small dainty nose. And oh, the most perfect, large and round icy blue eyes. That ice longsword she held in her hand only served to make her look even more badass... and sexy. Too bad part of her face was obscured by a stupid transparent nozzle that covered her nose.

"What is the meaning of this?" Officer Weselton's voice rang out through the silence. The blonde woman whipped around to look at him. "How dare you stop this vessel, you insolent scum! This is a UNIF mining vessel on a course for the planet ARD-13! I demand you release us immediately!"

With a flick of her wrist, the ice sword dissolved into blue light and faded away. Officer Weselton's face paled. "Sorcery..." His eyes narrowed and glared up at the blonde woman. "I knew there was something dubious going on here."

To Anna's surprise, the blonde woman and her companions laughed. Gazing back into the old officer's now scared black irises, she smirked, then proceeded to speak in a strange accent. "Sorcery? Despite your species short history I thought such a duration would have been sufficient time for humans to progress beyond belief in _magic_." Anna's eyes turned dreamy at the sound of her melodic voice, and she nearly swooned as that musical laugh sounded again. Such a beautiful creature should not be humanly possible. It was clouding her judgement!

In a foolish move, Anna spoke out, desperate to get on the woman's good side. "Yeah, isn't magic a little _old school_?"

She was utterly unprepared when the deck erupted in a chorus of murmurs. The old officer's eyes seemed unsure whether to narrow in suspicion or widen in fear. Those soldiers that came from the holes in the hull immediately leveled their weapons at her. Most hurting of all however, was the longsword reforming in the woman's hand. Now when she spoke, she did so in a different voice, and it was slurred and nearly unintelligible.

"Human with the copper hair, from whence did you learn to speak our tongue?"

_English. _Her own language. Anna's eyes widened and her palms began to sweat. _I was speaking in a different tongue? What? You cannot be serious._ "Uh... P-pardon me?" She stammered. In her head, she kicked herself for stammering. Now she was completely, utterly screwed. Yet, some twisted part of her brain was able to find some kind of joy in the situation. _Oh look, I've finally found aliens. _She thought happily, before a stinging pain hit her in the back of her neck and the world exploded into ice shards.

* * *

><p><em>Frossiyan Exosphere<em>

_Cycle 5, Arc of Restoration_

_Unknown human scout vessel_

Elsa stepped out of the boarding vessel that had slammed into the hull, looking back to see the breaching end of the boarding vessel having torn through the hull, the metal twisted and warped in strange ways. The vessel had already anchored into the hull to prevent catastrophic depressurization, but they'd have to eject in a separate module to leave. That was of course, assuming they needed to leave.

"What is this?" one of the soldiers behind her muttered. "I came here for a battle."

"And with patience," she said, "a battle we shall have. Soon enough."

"Hostiles!" She heard the garbled human language through her ears, her mind making primitive sense of the language. Her hands flew up to crystallize an icy shield before her, just in time to catch the projectiles that cracked the surface ever so slightly. "What were you saying again?" The shield dissipated, reforming into an icy spear which she threw straight at the human that had opened fire on them. The spear pierced the primitive olive clothing, making a squelch as the wound squirted blood. The human collapsed, mouth open in a silent scream, his primitive projectile based weapon clattering upon the metal surface below.

The other humans behind him stood in stock silence, their arms wavering in fear. "Go," she motioned to six of the Eternal behind her. "Round them up. But harm not the innocent, and attack only in self-defense. Am I clear?"

"Crystal," they replied in unison, and jogged down the corridor towards the main body of the ship.

The human word on the wall translated into "Bridge", their command post, but when Elsa looked to the left the metal doors were sealed shut. _No doubt they would have protocols to protect themselves in various ways,_ she thought as she moved silently towards the doors. _No matter. Plates of metal shall not obstruct my goal._

One of the soldiers behind her seemed to read her mind. "Commander, the door is very thick. Our weapons and manpower are incapable of a breach."

"Or are they?" came the curt reply, as Elsa retracted her hand into a clenched fist, then struck into the panel in front of her, leaving a huge indentation within the doors. She drew back her fist again, her hand now swirling with bright blue energy, and when she struck the indentation grew ever larger, frost spreading across the surface to crack and weaken the structure. Elsa took one step back, raised one leg and dealt a swift blow to the weakened doors, watching with satisfaction as they flew forwards and outwards, revealing the humans within.

Icewrath materialized in her hand as she stepped upon the bridge, surveying its inhabitants. A group of human officers stood near a few consoles, while two other, seemingly unhostile humans stood aside from the group. Elsa raised Icewrath, pointing its tip at the most senior looking officer on the bridge, her eyes narrowing into dangerous slits.

"Greetings, humans." She felt a nova of icy energy expand from her position, manifesting in a damaging layer of frost that crackled as it spread, icing over the metal floors and walls of the bridge, creeping up the human consoles that the officers stood before. "I see you have a particular interest in our planet."

A flash of movement. Before Elsa could react she already heard the projectiles fire from a barrel. Her eyes adjusted, barely registering that an officer had brought a sidearm up to bear and opened fire on her before one of the Eternal threw up his shield in front of her. The projectiles ricocheted off the shield, and another Eternal followed up with a counter-attack, raising his charging rifle with a whine. The energy discharged, a blue bolt lashing out against the attacking officer.

Elsa was relieved; more importantly, she was impressed. Not only was she unscathed, the counter-attack had been precise: the bolt had struck the officer in the heart, and she watched on as the human gaped in surprise and pain as his skin turned to ice and he froze in place. The reaction on the rest of the humans was very visible by this point. "A noble act," she continued, lowering Icewrath, "Though the same cannot be said for the rest of you."

"What is the meaning of this?" came forth the garbled speech from the senior officer, and Elsa whipped back round to face him down. "How dare you stop this vessel, you insolent scum! This is a UNIF mining vessel on a course for the planet ARD-13! I demand you release us immediately!"

With a flick of her wrist Icewrath dissipated from her grasp as Elsa prepared to handle the threat, only to draw a fearful paling of features from the officer. "Sorcery," he muttered. "I knew there was something dubious going on around here."

Elsa couldn't help but laugh in contempt, as did the Eternal behind her as she returned the gaze into the eyes of the officer that now filled with fear. "Sorcery? Despite your species short history I thought such a duration would have been sufficient time for humans to progress beyond belief in _magic_."

"Yeah, isn't magic a little _old school_?"

Her eyebrows furrowed. _That's not right…_ She turned towards the source of the sound, only to find that it was not one of the Eternal who spoke, but rather a human female with copper red hair. _That was Frossiyan speak, not her own language. But how…_ Her confusion was clearly shared by all in the room; the human officers broke into a chorus of murmurs, the senior officer merely stood there stock still, and the golden haired female behind her could not respond either. The Eternal behind her also voiced their confusion, raising their weapons and directing them towards this strange being.

Elsa herself rematerialized Icewrath, raising its edge towards the female. "Human with the copper hair, from whence did you learn to speak our tongue?"

"Uh... P-pardon me?" the human stammered back.

Something wasn't right, and instinct compelled Elsa to draw on the frost directly behind the human red haired female, crystallizing into an icy bolt that slammed into the back of her head, knocking her unconscious. As momentum carried her bodice forth Elsa stepped forth to catch her prone form, unwilling to cause unnecessary damage and suffering.

_That was… odd._

But this was no time to be amused. She handed over the unconscious female to one of the Eternal behind her, motioning for her to be carried back into the boarding craft. Then she turned back to the problem at hand.

She watched the humans quiver before her in uncertainty.

Elsa now had three options. The first was of course to simply slaughter all of them, and destroy their mothership. In a matter of minutes the whole problem of the humans would be solved. But deep down she knew that this was a temporary solution at best. Even if the humans never returned to this part of the galaxy again, they knew of its existence. There was no knowing what they would come back with this time. In any case, she would not stand for the slaughter of unknown beings that had yet to commit harm towards her people

The other alternative, of course, would be to destroy this little vessel, then send a warning to their mothership. It would be a considerably beneficial alternative because there would be less bloodshed, and the mothership would be intimidated into departure. If they were lucky, the humans would be so reluctant to come back that they would not disclose their existence to other races out there and would never return to this part of the galaxy again.

The final solution would be the most radical, and irreversible solution. The Commander would inform the Frossiyan Council, and the great Frossiya herself that the humans were a threat to the galactic status quo and the safety of the galaxy in general. The Ringfleets would be sent to their homeworld Earth, wherever it was, alongside any other colonies they might have on other habitable worlds, and they would destroy the humans completely. No more humans, no more troubles. But to consider alien genocide on what could potentially be a multi-planetary scale was too extreme for her, so she quickly removed the thought from her mind.

But kill all the people on this ship? Could she really do this? To start off the Arc of Restoration so inauspiciously?

A sobbing sound crept into her ears from her right side. She tilted her head as the Eternal continued to aim their weapons at the human officers, watching the golden haired girl break out into fits of crying. A wave of uneasiness swept over her as she took in the scene that unfolded before her. Her hair was only a few shades darker than her own, with facial features that could be easily mistaken for some of their own.

_How similar we are, and yet I perceived differently so. We share a near identical physiology and biology, similar psychological and emotional capacity, yet we distance ourselves from each other…_

A new but familiar presence crept into her head. Frossiya. _"Your thoughts border on dangerous, uncharted territory. Lead astray, you may be."_

_But—_

_"__I come not to halt your proceedings, but merely an advisory to the actions you will undertake. I leave you; everything that happens now, is in your hands."_ She felt the presence withdraw, and she mentally whispered a silent thank you in return.

"Why do you cry, child?" she asked the golden-haired girl, who cowered away in fear, kneeling upon the floor, her breathing racked with sobs. A moment of silence passed before Elsa repeated the question, still in garbled human speech, but she tried to sound more… gentle.

"You're going to kill us all now, aren't you?" came the reply. "That's what all the movies say aliens do. I'm never going to see my dear Eugene again, or my children. Or my mom and dad..."

_So this is what they think of us. And did we not think of them as such? _

"What is your name?"

"R… Rapunzel…"

_Healer._ She'd almost said it out loud too, but Elsa restrained herself.

But she could not help watch the glistening tears trickle down Rapunzel's cheeks. _Does the galaxy really think so lowly of us? The humans haven't even met us formally, and yet they believe us to be hostile and warlike. Is this to be our fate?_ She gazed back to the human who was still talking, now close to crying again. She had a family, offspring, love. She had a life beyond this. If the Commander decided to destroy the entire vessel, she would deprive her children of one parent. She would deprive countless others of the same thing. She would cause great loss, and sadness on Earth. Great hate too, towards Frossiya. Perhaps not directly, but hate towards the cause of death would be felt on them.

Her own life felt none of this, but she felt the countless years of their race's great history of pain through Frossiya; she knew each and every agony, each and every despair. Could she condemn countless more to similar fates?

And then she decided, _no. I cannot._

Surprising herself again, she placed a hand on the sobbing human's shoulder, patting it until she stopped sobbing, before standing. "You will be allowed to return to your vessel, with the exception of the one who spoke our language. Never return to our world, or there will be consequences. We will trouble you no further." An unusual warmth flooded her veins as she heard sighs of relief and cries of happiness echoing around the bridge of this queer metal vessel. She watched as a grateful, relieved smile break out upon Rapunzel's face.

Wordlessly and featurelessly, she turned away, motioning for the Eternal to return to their ship, and mentally recalling the few that she had sent out before. She trudged back into their boarding vessel, the Eternal loading up behind her, the icy pod's doors hissing shut before the escape module, containing their new passenger, ejected back into the blackness of space.

"Their ship is… they will be entering our atmosphere at the wrong angle within the next few millicycles, commander." One of the Eternal looked out the porthole at the crippled human vessel that drifted toward the Frossiyan atmosphere.

Elsa reached into her mental reserves of power, reaching into the ice left behind on the ship, and gradually she pulled. With great strength, and great mental capacity, she gave the ship momentum through the ice, pulling the ship out of its potentially fatal dive and back outwards from whence they had come, past the Ringfleets, and towards their mothership.

"If I may, commander," another Eternal stepped forth towards her, "why did we spare them?"

"We've caused enough pain throughout all our cycles," Elsa replied, feeling Icewrath's sheath through her battle armor. "It's time restore the true power of us Frossiyan's: that of kindness, empathy and mercy."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_UNIF Living Rock_

_0550 Earth hours – 2 days stranded_

_Proximity of ARD 13, deep space, Milky Way_

Duke Weselton tried his best to look intimidating without having to tiptoe as he stood on the Captain's podium. His vessel had been taken control of by a small force of about ten aliens, and one of them had been a woman. He gritted his teeth and grimaced as he thought about all the metal that had been left behind there on the planet. All his riches, his hopes and dreams, had been shattered by a goddamn woman who could do some fancy things with ice!

He looked around at the crew from his perch. Contrary to the serious attitude with which they had been moving with as the small vessel had made its way towards the ice planet, the mood was much lighter now. Of the eighteen people left conscious, not a single one was able to stop gushing about their experience. None could stop spouting complete garbage about their fear, trepidation and admiration for the aliens which had briefly taken over the vessel.

He looked over again to a distant corner of the vessel. There, a woman with long blonde hair and green eyes sat with a circle of about six other girls around her. As she continued talking, all of them made sounds of admiration and envy. _Rapunzel_. Now they all looked to him and immediately burst into giggles. Duke struggled to control his anger as he quivered with rage in his seat.

He'd seen the blonde alien woman kneel down next to the sobbing Rapunzel and speak to her. He'd seen her words move the alien in such a way that she had ultimately decided to let them go back to the spaceship unscathed. He scowled. Weak. Weak was what Rapunzel was. She'd not had the courage, the audacity to stand up to the aliens and forcefully demand what they wanted. Instead she'd withdrawn into herself with sadness, and assisted in the aliens' decision to return them to the vessel rather than negotiate. She'd made him look like a complete fool, as he was forcefully restrained by the 'sorcerers'. Even now, the soldiers that still walked around the bridge were grinning at him whilst they waved their arms around, making stupid noises that he supposed were meant to be voodoo sounds. She'd compromised his leadership, and gotten her own little following of people.

Weselton clenched his fists and bowed his head. Those stupid aliens were the only thing in the way of him and the biggest task he had been assigned in his entire career. The biggest profit he would ever have made for the company, the biggest amount of recognition he would receive for his contributions to the UN's coffers. All the money, promotions, and bonuses. A life of ease. All gone because of those aliens. He'd be damned if he was going to let those subhumans take away all that from him.

The situation could still be salvaged. But for that, Rapunzel would have to go.

Once the ship docked with the _Living Rock_, he dashed to the airlock as fast as his short legs could carry him, making sure he was the first one to enter the other vessel. Rather conveniently for his plan, Rapunzel was right behind him. As soon as he stepped into the larger vessel he turned and stabbed a finger at Rapunzel. "Men, seize this traitor!"

The blonde woman struggled and turned to him, eyes widened. "What did I do?" A brown-haired man with similarly colored eyes and a hint of stubble rushed to her side. "Yeah, what did she do?" He questioned.

Duke's eyes narrowed as he pointed his finger again at the woman. "For conspiring with the aliens!" The indignant shouts of the six girls around her were immediately drowned out by the loud yells at the word 'aliens'. The six of them were immediately silenced as the guards pressed firearms to their spines.

Duke began to speak, pouring every single inch of his acting skill into conveying what he hoped was a convincing lie to the rest of the crew. He waved his arms about madly as he told the story of what had happened 'out there, at the cursed planet'. "... and she spoke to the alien woman's leader! She spoke to that mockery of humanity and struck a bargain with her. To let us leave alive so that we would never go back! Are we going to let those subhumans trample us like this?"

"_No!_" Responded the crowd.

"We are humans, we are a proud race! Are we going to let a bunch of ice wielding aliens stop us from getting what we want?"

"_No!_" The crew roared.

"Anna? Anna?"

The loud cheers were silenced immediately as a huge blonde man ran to the front of the crowd, his eyes searching madly before settling on Weselton's small frame. "Anna, where is she?" Weselton thought of the strawberry blonde woman who had been taken by the aliens; another abomination no doubt, for being able to speak their language. Why did he want to know? He looked up again at the blonde man. _Kristoff Bjorgman_. He barely suppressed the smile forming on his lips.

"Sorry, Mister Bjorgman, but she was taken by the aliens. She is currently somewhere out… there right now." He gestured towards the blue planet.

He watched, nearly bursting out in laughter as the blonde man's face contorted in rage. He punched a nearby bulkhead, denting the metal, before grabbing Weselton's shirt and yanking. "I don't care how many orders you have shoved up that little ass of yours to avoid hostile alien contact, _they_ didn't follow them. You're not leaving Anna behind!"

Weselton smiled and pried himself free of Kristoff's grasp. "I wasn't going to," he said, and turned back to the crowd. "We're going to need all the help we can to get young Miss Anna back. So who's with us?"

"Wait."

"What is it now, Mister Bjorgman?"

"Rapunzel goes free."

The officer tried to put on his best acting face. "Are you serious about this bullshit you're putting forward to us? Rapunzel didn't conspire with nobody!"

"But—"

"With all due respect, officer," Kristoff said, "Rapunzel is innocent. Let her go."

"I could eject you into deep space," Weselton snarled, "for insubordination and disrespect for the chain of command—"

"Let her go!" someone in the crowd yelled out. "Rapunzel didn't conspire with them!"

"Yeah, she's innocent!"

"What you tryna' do, turn us against each other?"

Weselton faced the crowd, now feeling the threat of legitimate insubordination at his doorstep. He had no choice; he had to relent. "Let her go," he said to the guards.

Rapunzel shook herself from the iron grips of the soldiers, rubbing her arms from the strong clutching and glaring at Weselton, as the crowd fell silent in the wake of the power vacuum.

"Right. Let's go get back Anna."

The crew now surged with one mind behind Kristoff to the simulation room to begin their training to handle the firearms. Assignment of roles, formation of teams. Little cogs in the huge system of gears that spun into motion for the plan. And Kristoff, the perfect figurehead! Duke could not remember a time that he had been similarly well-fortuned, and he crowed silently to himself. Soon, that planet and all its materials would be his, and those pesky aliens that inhabited the planet, dead. Poor Miss Anna was unfortunately, expendable.

* * *

><p><em>Frossiyan City of Ashean<em>

_Cycle 5, Arc of Restoration_

_Fortress of Fractals_

Elsa had made the decision not to return to _Glaciar._ "I have a human onboard this ship, and I will undertake the necessary steps to ensure that she is welcome, as much as she is of alien origin," she reported to the council. Already she sensed various questions and quizzical thoughts arising in the minds of the ones she conversed with, but she had terminated the connection between them as the Eternal redirected their course.

"Where to, Commander?"

"Back to the Fortress."

They had descended through the icy clouds and past raging hailstorms and blizzards, Elsa listening to the familiar thumping sound of the hailstones and snow scraping across the surface of the craft, her head resting on the hard headrest of her seat, the copper haired human lying unconsciously in the seat next to her. And as much as she hated to admit it, the commander was starting to feel a tinge of concern for her new companion.

Now she rested upon a more comfortable chair within her own chambers, watching the human rest upon a bed of soft fur harvested from the indigenous wildlife, keeping watch over her. The Council convened tomorrow to decide the fate of this human female who could speak their tongue. As if that were shocking compared to the similarities already glaringly obvious between their own people and the humans. Or more importantly, between herself and the female.

A look at the human female's hair told the Commander that it was pretty much the same as hers. It would not stay in place unless held there. The Commander froze her white-gold locks in place until they capitulated and held their position. The human female's hair, a combination of red and gold, looked and - oh, even felt the same texture. Elsa withdrew her ice cold hand quickly as the human stirred. She wondered how the human had managed to tame something as uncontrollable as hair, let alone style it into two braids instead of just one.

The Commander's eyes raked over the same high cheekbones, the small nose, and eyelids that shielded a pair of large, beautiful aquamarine eyes. What made it more beautiful was the tanned color of the skin on which this visage was sculpted. The warm, golden look of the skin as compared to her own pale complexion made the Commander want to rest her cheek on it forever, and savor its welcoming warmth for all eternity.

_Wait. What?_ She held back with intense restraint, fearing that she would wake the human. She could not bear to disturb this beautiful creature from her sleep. That small smile that curled the perfect lips as she lay there (never mind the trail of water), just made the human look so peaceful and beautiful. To wake or disturb something so alluring was a sin.

Elsa clapped a hand to her mouth and began to blush furiously as she realized what she'd been doing. _Conceal, don't feel_. _What in the name of Frossiya have I done?_ The few freckles she had begun to show as she thought more seriously about what had just happened. She was nearly sidetracked again as she caught sight of freckles dusting themselves across the human's nose and cheekbones. _Adorable_...

Mentally, she slapped herself and slumped back into the armchair that she'd shaped beside the human's bed, suppressing a groan behind her face. She was admiring the beauty of a member of a completely alien species! A species Frossiya had had limited or no contact with before! _What the hell is wrong with me_? She tried to bring her flustered breathing and raging emotions under control. _Imagine what would happen if _Hans _saw me now. Becoming all flustered over a sleeping human female_.

Elsa stiffened.

Human female.

That was something else that she was afraid to admit to herself. Her existence required no reproduction between male and female, but there was no denying that what she felt wasn't _normal_. _Conceal, don't feel. Let no emotion show_.

Forget not being normal. This human was here for purely investigatory purposes, there was no possibility of any intimate contact between them. She shook her head fiercely and cleared her mind. This human female was an anomaly. An impossibility. In all likelihood the decision of the Council would be to liquidate her, for it seemed her own kind would no longer take her back. She'd seen the look in the eyes of that silver-haired human. The one that looked like _Hans_' human counterpart. In their eyes she was no longer anything like them, she had become something utterly different simply because of her ability to speak a different language. If the Commander allowed herself to get close to this strange human, there was no telling of the way it would affect her decision as to whether or not to keep her alive. And a choice like this was crucial.

Yet, she felt a pang of pity for this human female. Among the people of Frossiya now, she was utterly alone. She had no friends to speak of in this place, no familiar places, no familiar animals. The human would be relying solely on her strange fluency in the Frossiyan language. Yet among her own people she would still be alone, probably persecuted for having the ability to communicate with an alien race. Xenophobic as they were, it was highly likely the humans would choose to kill her rather than spare her and use her as a diplomatic tool. Either way her existence would be hard and lonely. And it wasn't like Elsa's own situation where she barred herself from getting close to others to avoid negative influence. The human would be living a life of isolation, lies and politics. A world of manipulation and rhetoric. She would be unable to get close to anyone on either side, whether she wanted to or not. For _they_ would be shutting her out rather than the reverse.

Both of them were so lonely in their worlds, among their people. One by necessity, one involuntarily. The Commander could not help but feel some kind of familiarity with the human. Ignoring all the instincts that screamed for her to remember her duty and place, she took hold of the human's hand, before beginning to speak in slow human speech.

"I don't know... how you're able to understand us. I don't know why you revealed your gift. But I know that from that moment on, you will be alone. Utterly alone. And if it's worth anything, I am too." Elsa caressed the hand lightly, letting herself get carried away. "I'm sorry I had to separate you from your race. But I think it would have been a lot worse if I had not. I promise I will do whatever it takes to make sure you are... fairly judged." _No promises_. "May the Ice protect you. You will need Its help from now on."

Releasing the human's warm hand, Elsa wrapped her hands around her own torso, although she knew no warmth like the human's would come with it. In this position, she fell into a soft, dreamless sleep in the chair next to the human in her bed.

* * *

><p><em>Unknown location on ARD-13<em>

_Unknown point of day_

_Deep space, Milky Way_

Anna groaned. Something at the back of head hurt like hell, and she couldn't remember what. Heck, she didn't know where she was, what time it was, and why it was freezing in here—

Still in half groggy state she felt for a blanket, her hands coming into contact with a furry soft blanket, which she gratefully pulled over and draped over her bodice, her head drifting off towards the realm of sleep once more upon an soft pillow.

_Wait, Living Rock doesn't have these kinds of beds—_

In a flash everything came flying back to her; her eyes flew open and she threw off the blanket, half-fearing it to be some sort of capture device. Her pupils darted across the room, from one icy, shimmering corner to the other, looking up and down, taking in the view that surrounding her, including a particular blonde woman sitting next to her bed.

"GAHH!" she screamed, suddenly noticing the woman's – alien's – presence, her heart leaping to her throat. _Great job, Anna, you finally got what you wished for; and now you're stuck on an unknown planet, away from the rest of your people!_ "What… what do you want from me?" she asked tentatively.

"Nothing you can offer is required, but your species does not appear to have much to offer in the first place." The words were laced, ironically, with an icy cold tone, saddening Anna's already petrified heart. "But then again," the alien continued, "I could not expect a different reaction from such a young race."

"Why did you bring me here?" Anna demanded, her fear turning to rage.

"For the simple fact that you can communicate with me," came the curt reply tinged with annoyance, and Anna was now visibly hurt; she couldn't help but admit she cared about what this blonde alien thought of her. "It is a rather peculiar matter, and until I can make a proper decision I needed you to come to our homeworld."

That was went it hit her. "Wait. Home… world? Are we on the planet?"

Small cracking reached her ears; she turned towards the sound, watching the icy wall become transparent, revealing the extent of the grand city she was now in. Each and every structure was made of the purest ice, the dim light of the dwarf that the planet orbited around glinted and refracted in the most beautiful of ways, casting rainbows across the landscape. Below, she could see tiny figures going about their daily lives, not quite different from how humans would have done on Earth and the rest of the colonies in space.

But that was what unnerved her as well. So she moved on to happier matters. "What's your name?" she asked the blonde woman.

The alien turned, Anna only now noticing the spectacular ceremonial dress that adorned the woman's figure, leaving the tops of her shoulders exposed and glistening all the way down to her feet, like something out of a story. "I'd thought the first question you'd ask would be why you were still alive."

"Well, that too, but I would have hoped you didn't want to kill me from the start." Uneasily, she shifted her feet, staring at her captor, hoping she'd said the right thing. There was something very peculiar about this woman (or alien) that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Anna attempted to stand up from the bed, but the moment she tried to put weight on the ground she slipped backwards and fell back on the bed in an unsightly fasion.

Her new companion sighed as Anna cursed inwardly, and she watched as the blonde woman drew the broadsword. Anna started backing away.

"Relax," the woman said, twirling the blade. "If I really wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have waited until now to do so. I'm just altering a few things." With the tip of the blade she drew a pattern upon the icy floor, and suddenly a layer of soft snow covered the once slippery surface, allowing enough traction for Anna to push herself up and dust herself off. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"Are you cold?" came another question.

"Not… really…"

"Good. You'll need to keep warm for the next section." The alien swung her hands, and an insignia of some sort suddenly engraved itself into the section of a wall, before swinging outwards to reveal a passageway beyond. "Come now. We must go and face the Council."

"The… Council?"

"Yes. There they will decide your fate."

Her heart almost stopped again. "My… fate…?"

"Fear not; our Council is fair and just, save a few exceptions, but you shall not perish. I promise." Her ceremonial dress morphed into a more formal robe, but Anna could not help but continue to admire the well-endowed figure that the new attire adorned. "You may wish to save your gift in tongues for later, when we do face them."

_Gift in tongues? Well, I'll show you a thing or two with my- wait._ Anna smacked a palm to her forehead, realizing that she'd been speaking in alien language all the while. A blush began to rise over her face and neck, as she lamented her misunderstanding of the beautiful alien's words. She was after all, an alien! Where did she even get that idea?

"Shall we proceed?" the alien said, extending an arm towards the door, indicating for Anna to exit the room. For once, she thought she detected a note of concern in that voice.

"…okay," she replied.

Anna rose upon unsteady legs, her heart still palpitating for the events to come as she tread upon the slippery floor. _Why am I going along with this? I should escape! I should find some way to contact the personnel back on Living Rock, not go along with some alien scheme!_ Her head screamed a thousand different reasons for her to get the hell out of that god-forsaken place, but her heart said otherwise; she couldn't bear to leave a place as beautiful as this.

Then she realized she couldn't bear to leave a person as beautiful as this.

"You still haven't told me your name, you know," she said as she walked through the doorway.

A moment of silence passed between them before the alien spoke up. "It's Elsa. What's yours?"

"Anna."

"That's a nice name."

Anna didn't quite know how to respond to that, but her face flushed at the compliment. So she turned on her heel to leave, her heart momentarily free from worry, simply happy that she'd earned some sort of favour from the blonde woman she'd just met.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

_Frossiyan City of Ashean_

_Cycle 5, Arc of Restoration_

_Fortress of Fractals_

"…you shall not perish. I promise."

The words she had uttered returned fleetingly to Elsa's mind before they passed again. It brought to her mind two things; the first was that she'd made a promise she might not have been able to keep.

The second was that the human would perish in their atmosphere: it was mainly carbon dioxide.

Elsa berated herself for the oversight. Luckily for her, she'd already preconditioned her chambers to be filled with an atmospheric composition that suited the human. Elsa's own species was adaptable to atmospheric conditions, so it bothered her not that the air she breathed contained foreign components.

But the human would be bothered, once she exited the chamber. So as she caught up to Anna just before they reached the main gates, her hands stretched forth, bursting with magic to conjure a breathing apparatus, a design she had memorized from her years studying in their archive's wealth of knowledge. She fixed up the converter into a wearable design and outfitted it upon the human's back, and handed the breather to her. "What's this?" came the curious response.

"Breathing apparatus. I conditioned the atmosphere here so you wouldn't asphyxiate and die, but out there you will."

"Oh. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

An awkward exchange. Elsa could tell by the visible blush and the turning of the human's head, and she could not help but acknowledge that it bothered her just a bit. But she didn't let it show; there was no need to, and to show emotion would be a weakness in this very context. Instead she ensured the breathing apparatus attached to Anna properly, checked that the converter was functioning, and then opened the chamber doors. The ice hissed as it retracted, as a cool wind blew into the hallway, leading to the Great Hall before them.

"Wow," she heard her companion utter. "It's beautiful."

"Thank you. We make do with what we have here." Even for Elsa she had to admit it was a sight to behold. The glimmering surfaces of the entire castle was pure ice, with tinges of colour here and there, displaying a sense of royalty and supremacy; the arches upon the curved cylindrical roof cast specks of rainbows across the floor, a surface made of the purest Whitecrystal lined with frost. Chandeliers of cool blue ice hung from the tall ceiling, and glowing orange Radionce lined the walls, illuminating the castle through clever refraction and projection.

"Come now, for we waste time. The Council awaits." Elsa continued walking, hearing the pace of the human's footsteps start up behind her.

As they walked Elsa contemplated her options that she could undertake at the meeting. No doubt there would be sentiments to kill her. No doubt there would be sentiments to send her back to the wretched planet from whence she had come. Yet it was a rather peculiar situation; it was not every day that someone from another part of the galaxy speaks your species' language. She'd have to handle this carefully, and consider the opinions of the Leader and the Intelligence equally and with a clear mind.

She had half a mind to exclude Hans from the meeting to ensure that. But she couldn't. Inwardly she swore to herself.

Two soldiers saluted her as she walked past, giving her barely enough time to nod in response. Her peripheral vision gave her a glimpse of the arched eyebrow her guest directed towards the soldiers. _She thinks they're uneasy around me. Well. That's a trend I've noticed._ She wasn't exactly liked by various members of the Frossiyan community, let alone the Frossiyan armed forces, but Elsa figured it was more advantageous to be feared than loved.

_But at what cost?_ a voice whispered into her ear.

A familiar figure sprinted towards her. How funny; she had red hair just like her new companion.

"Commander," Merida bowed as she approached. "I apologise for my tardiness; I was commissioned by the Council to seek out your whereabouts—"

"No matter, young Warrior. All is well. We will see them now."

"Of course, Commander," Merida said, then paused as she directed a cursory but subtle glance at Anna, who was whistling away as she admired the rest of the Frossiyan architecture, "with her?"

Elsa tried her best to look incredulous. Merida was a very close friend, and Elsa was her mentor of sorts, but she did have to at least try to appear in some sense of decorum with her. "Of course, Merida! How outrageous the notion of leaving her outside would be!"

"Sorry," her friend replied, turning her head in an embarrassed fashion but understanding Elsa's rationale. "Shall we go?"

"Of course." Elsa took a few steps forward, then turned to motion the human to come along.

She didn't respond.

"Anna?" she called out.

The human's head turned immediately, with a beaming expression on her face. "Yeah?"

"We must go."

"Oh. Okay. Sure!" She skipped along.

Elsa couldn't help but be amused at the human's antics, perhaps just a little happy. Happiness; it was something she hadn't felt in quite a while now, and she welcomed the brief respite.

But she had a job to do. And if that job involved terminating her new friend…

For once, Elsa actually found herself at a loss. She contemplated the dilemma as she stepped past the heavy doors of the Councilor Chamber, realizing that she for once, would actually have difficulty carrying out her duty. _What is going on with me? I'm getting indecisive over her now?_

Then she looked up to the faces of the Councilors staring back at her, and swiftly banished the thoughts from her mind.

* * *

><p>The glyph-adorned pillars of the chambers that rose to the ceiling, probably 10 times as high as her, did nothing to alleviate her worries.<p>

It was always the same council. All of them would be sitting ramrod straight, unforgiving eyes staring straight down at her, expecting things of her, awaiting her command. As much as the insignia upon the blade she carried gave her immense power in various ways, it was also an immense burden, and deep down she didn't really like to deal with the Council a lot. The austere expressions stared down harshly at her red-haired companion, who seemed to shift uncomfortably.

_It's okay, _she told Anna mentally. _Relax. I'm here._

She had no idea why she chose to express herself that way. The human seemed rather surprised at the contact, but calmed down quickly. Elsa couldn't blame her; the council did seem rather intimidating.

"Commander," the Leader addressed her personally. She gave a nod in reply, turning back towards the chamber full of Councilors, standing at the base of their meeting room. She cast a glance upon the podium meant for her to speak.

Her hand rose up, and seemed to brush at an invisible surface. The podium dissipated.

"I won't lie to you," she started, "but this is a rather peculiar and unique situation we find ourselves in."

"Do elaborate," one of the Councilors piped up.

"As you—"

"As you require," Hans said, cutting Elsa off. A temper flared within Elsa – _how dare he!_ – but quickly cooled, remembering she was here for the human's sake, and not to find every opportunity to go against Hans. "Council, let us begin the trial of this… human. For one, I shall pose the first question to get things going; why are we even gathered here?"

"Strategist," the Leader rebuked, "I think it would be wise if—"

"We are here," Hans continued, glaring at the Leader, "for no, conceivable, reason!" He jabbed a finger at Anna, continuing his rant. "Humans tried to mine our planet. She shouldn't be alive!"

"Hans, a single individual does not carry the sentiments of the rest of her people out there," Elsa replied, now struggling to keep her temper in check.

"She does, if she decides to travel through deep space to find this place!"

"Humans are a young species who haven't met many, many others. They could not have considered our existence—"

"Tell that to the Martians."

Elsa's mind, her guard temporarily let down by her focus on Hans' arguments, were suddenly assaulted by a tsunami of emotions. _Humans—!_ She felt an all-overpowering presence emanate from Anna, her vision tinging red from the overwhelming mental anger her human companion was feeling towards Hans' accusations and his own person. Her eyebrows furrowed as she clenched a fist. _Conceal. Don't feel. _

"We cannot condemn her for the actions of her superiors upon that ship, nor can we condemn their actions for their superiors on their homeworld, Hans—"

Hans cut her off again. "That's not the point! Our race has never been afraid of conquest! So why do you hold back, Commander? Is it because they look like us? Or is it because of her? Their race has just a bloody history as any other, having destroyed entire species for their own benefit. Now they are moving on us! Why do we not defend ourselves? Have you lost your edge, _Commander?!_"

She heard the venom in his voice through the overwhelming assault of Anna's mental firestorm. Thoughts that were not her own flooded her minded as she failed to keep it out, something she had no difficulty in having before. As panic spread through her own mind she attempted to comprehend the torrent of garbled emotions that slammed into her like a blizzard: _Hypocrite! Who is he to direct the wrath of his race onto mine? He's doing all this without a legitimate reason, doing it all because Elsa, sweet, beautiful and considerate Elsa's mistake…_

Elsa's face was on the verge of flushing, but more pressing thoughts permeated her brain as Hans continued: "These humans think they're the kings of the universe. To just advance upon a planet and decide to tear it apart for themselves, to wipe out entire races in order to get _materials_. Such a violent, arrogant race does not deserve to live. I propose I lead the Ringfleets to their home planet and destroy it utterly." To make matters worse, her mind could pick up some of the Councilors actually buying what Hans was saying.

_So this is what it's all about, huh? Gaining power for yourself? Over my dead—_

Someone else stepped forward abruptly; Elsa only recognized that it was Anna when the emotions she was feeling became painful to feel as Anna's speech flowed forth fluently in Frossiyan speak: "I wonder who's being the king of the universe now, deciding to _wipe out entire races_. Sound familiar, hmm? Who would you be to deprive a defendant of a chance to speak for themselves, and malign their caretakers? Who would you be?"

The emotions cleared, vented, freeing Elsa from a tormenting headache. A stunned silence lingered as the final syllable was uttered, as only the shallow breathing of the Councilors was uttered.

Then suddenly the glowing ice above flickered, dimming and lightening, gleaming before Anna's bodice, adorning her human olive clothing with intricate details of frost, an unknown insignia forming before her figure. Anna's own eyes filled with surprise, almost fear as she watched the ice continue to swirl before her, now gleaming in intensity. The insignia warped, then reformed into the shape of a sword and its sheath, attaching itself to Anna's waist.

Elsa frowned. _I'm not doing this._

_Frossiya?_

A presence within the back of her head indicated its approval.

"Blasphemy!" Hans yelled, lunging forth towards their position as an icy blade materialized in his hand, the Insignia of Strategy in formation upon its hilt. Without hesitation Elsa drew Icewrath from her sheath, attached to her ceremonial icy dress, swinging as she stepped forth to deflect Hans' own swing. The strength of the collision left a resounding blow echoing throughout the room, as Hans' blade flew through the air and embedded itself into a wall, Elsa aiming the blade towards Hans' neck. He stood there, a convolution of expressions upon his features; one neat swipe would get rid of that in an instant.

_No. I can't kill him. Such is not my purpose._

"But for the circumstances of the situation," Elsa snarled, "you should be dead." From the tip of Icewrath leapt a potent bolt of icy energy, lashing out across Hans' body amidst his grunts, immobilizing his entire body. A gasp rose from the crowd of Councilors behind the scene that unfolded before them.

"Do you not see the situation we face?" Elsa returned her attention towards the Council before her. "She is not one of us, yet the Ice recognizes her, and protects her, and hasn't rejected her from this planet yet."

"Does the Ice even know what it _protects?_" Hans hissed.

Elsa turned towards him, a cocky expression upon her face. "Do you imply that the great Frossiya then, does not know all?"

The atmosphere darkened visibly. Elsa's human companion stared round uncomfortably. Even the Councilors themselves seemed unnerved. Elsa watched the expression upon Hans' face change ever so slightly underneath the demeanor he attempted to display. Insolent or not, all of them would always hold a degree of respect for the great Ice.

"Pardon me," he muttered. "I meant no disrespect to the mandate of the Ice. We should do as such."

His fiery green eyes glowed with anger.

But for now, Elsa was satisfied, and she wasn't going to provoke anything further. With a swift stroke of her hand the encasing of ice disappeared from Hans' body, allowing him to drop to his knees and shiver for a while.

"Return to your post, Strategist."

He complied silently.

Elsa took in a deep breath to compose herself again, watching Anna's somewhat scared features through the translucent, icy breathing apparatus that was frosting over with condensation.

"I propose," she said, turning once more towards her audience, "that I keep the human within my residence and care for this period of time. Perhaps then we can understand this species better, and then understand their various motives and actions. And potentially, why they are here."

"What of the rest of the species?" The Leader inquired. "They remain in orbit around our planet."

"Leave them be," she replied. "Only if they do take offensive action do we retaliate. This is, after all, the Arc of Restoration." She resisted the urge to glare at Hans.

"Then it's settled," declared the Leader. "The human will remain in _Elsa_'s care for a duration of five days, during which she is to be evaluated, and the assessment transferred unto her species. This meeting is adjourned. Frossiya."

"Frossiya." The rest of the Council intoned, before they all rose and began to pack their belongings, idle chatter beginning to buzz as the twenty aliens took their leave.

She waited within the Chamber as the others filed out before she let out the breath she'd been holding. Then she felt arms forcefully wrap around her as a voice squealed, "Thank you so much, Elsa! Oh my god! Thank you!"

She could have easily untangled herself from the embrace that had already begun to make her feel mildly uncomfortable, but there was a part of her that flushed and was somewhat joyful that it had occurred, so she held back, feeling her face unwittingly become warmer. "You're welcome," she managed to reply.

* * *

><p>Deep within the Citadel of Souls something stirred.<p>

The solid crystal that floated within the chamber had not lit since the last time the Citadel had been visited, but now it did. The interior once more filled within the curiously neon-like blue light as the crystal, known to the planet's inhabitants as the divine and great Ice, began to glow again.

Frossiya awoke. The first thing she noticed was a presence she had not seen for a very, very long time.

_Idun?_

Her omnipresent vision took her to the meeting chamber of the Frossiyans, where the presence of Idun appeared to be the strongest. Frossiya found the trace essence of the person that once was, but not the person itself. Blue light fluoresced where Idun's essence lingered, where she had once sat, where she had once used her power. Mildly confused, she sought out the specific traces. The first source was where it should be, deep within the soul of her Commander's latest incarnation and pulsating brightly, but the second was absolutely perplexing and repulsing.

It stemmed from the soul of the human.

_Blasphemy! What are these humans doing upon this planet?_ Already this wasn't right, but seeing as the proceedings were already about to begin, she forced herself to listen. Even so, Frossiya noticed the trace essences within the two individuals flailing as if in an unseen breeze, reaching out for one another but not quite touching yet. She watched the Commander begin her proceedings, but were immediately cut off by the insolent Strategist.

She felt a temper within herself flare.

It wasn't normal for Frossiya to get annoyed, or even angry for that matter, but she did have her moments. She reached out towards her Commander, in an attempt to decipher how she would react to the situation. Her own psionic presence wrapped a tendril around the Commander's. And suddenly Frossiya was being swarmed. The emotions that were leaking out began to exceed what Elsa would have normally felt. Alarmed, Frossiya shut off the connection, analyzing the emotions that had leaked into her own being: concern, helplessness, insecurity, indecision, attraction, lust. _Lust? What happened to conceal, don't feel?_

_Commander…_ As much as Frossiya trusted Elsa to carry out what she had been set out to do, Elsa happened to be the Commander with the strongest connection, and potentially influence, over Frossiya. Already her thoughts were not her own, Elsa's own mental processes spilling over into Frossiya's own consciousness, and—

The copper-haired human that had been brought upon the planet spoke out suddenly, in retaliation to the Strategist's remarks. She stood forth in an abrupt fashion, sending a flurry of speech back towards her accuser, and henceforth all of Frossiya's doubts and confusion vanished listening to the stream of flawlessly pronounced fiery words. There was no doubt then, that this human was indeed of Idun. But how?

A sharp jerk; an immensely large force almost as powerful as Frossiya herself set her own powers into motion. Alarmed at herself and angry for letting down her own guard, she watched as intricate patterns of ice began to adorn the human. A singular symbol had also materialized upon her bodice, tiny runes surrounding the perimeter of the insignia. _Peacekeeper._

_This is not the work of my own_, she realized. Already she had begun reinforcing her own defenses from an attack; she didn't know who had hijacked her, and whether it could happen again. But whatever it was, for now it did not appear to be hostile—

—and then she found traces of her recent actions lingering within Elsa's subconscious.

_The Commander?_ Frossiya was genuinely confused; Elsa had influence, but never direct control, over her own actions. This was… new.

In the meantime a flurry of activity had already occurred. She watched the Strategist lunge towards the human, his blade ending up deflected by the Commander's own, then watched as he was encased in ice in a rare moment of anger and worry on the Commander's part. Elsa was never meant or supposed to feel the way she did, but she was anyway. Even after that, she ruled to have the human kept alive in her confines, for the purpose of interaction and study.

The turn of events left Frossiya decently curious, and a touch worried. As much as it was the Arc of Restoration, and Elsa was probably taking on a course of action parallel to the aims of the current arc and the objective Frossiya herself had set for Elsa, it still didn't seem quite right, or in line with the Commander's prerogative. If irrationality and a lack of control in the Commander wasn't bad enough, it was spilling into Frossiya's own consciousness. She'd have to neuter the problem at its root.

Frossiya moved to destroy the human, perhaps in an impaling of icicles, or a sudden drop in core body temperature, but then paused, realizing that the hearing had ended, and the human had suddenly gotten up to throw her own hands around the Commander in an outburst of joy and relief. _Funny. Emotions I haven't seen for a very long time._ And indeed, Frossiya herself was intrigued, to the point where she decided to revert her planned course of action. It would be important to find out more about this… anomaly.

A sudden wave of attraction washed over her, no doubt lingering from the Commander's psionic consciousness. Frossiya did the equivalent of a sigh in psionic terms. The previous incarnations of her Commander's had been plagued with loneliness, even Idun herself, before she died. The only signals she had gotten from Idun then was a vague sense of regret and remorse, but most of all acceptance, before she had lost contact entirely. From then it had taken a while before Frossiya could sense she had died. Of a broken heart? Of sheer loneliness?

Making sure the pity was now coming out of her own consciousness this time, Frossiya decided it wasn't so bad for the Commander to acquire a companion, even if it was a _water-_consuming being from another part of the galaxy. She would wait, for the moment, and see. And with that, Frossiya descended back down through the ice from the crystalline manifestation she had just occupied, back into the depths of her shell. To watch. And wait.


End file.
